The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-05-19

mountainsl No one told me; no one ever
ventured to mention his name to me. But
somehow placed him there in the long dim
room, and there my fancy kept following
him and lowering about him. Now he sat
| by the ireside there, in the deep chair,
| reading; now he was busy with maps and
| pictures at the table; now, in the big bay,
the moonlight, that had pale green refiec-
tons in it cast up from the emerald depths
| of the woods below, fell about him. dare
say that, in reality, busy about the place
and his affairs of one cert er anceEeS, and
doing his best to live and to forget, he was
very little in that room; but there 1 chose
to place him; and it grew strangely sweet
| to me, and every moment when could sit
down alone my fancy took me and l sat
down in that room, or else l wandered up
and down the great staircase and the hall
where his peoples portraits hung; but l
always came back again to the hearth of the
long dim room if it were day, to the
dancing fire-cast shadows there If 1t
were night, and the place grew dearer
and dearer to me every hour, and
l upbraided myself in thoughts too
bitter for speech for the folly and angry
temper that had shut me out of it, that had
drawn comparison between that ancient
| lofty place and this low and tireSome stretch
of nothing but common grass lands, between
that manor and this plain farmhouse, al
though in real truth my farmhouse was
quite its equal at any other time. But the
new year came in without sign from Mark
or sign from me; and the country was
white with snow, and the river ice was
strong enough to bear up sledges and teams
of horses, and the ice-boats went splitting
the wind before them. 1t all made no odds
to me. l was completely wretched. l didn't
pretend TO go to church or to any of the So
ciety meetings; and if the Sawyers and
Wellses came to me suppose treated them
properly-Tm sure don't know-but l new
er set my foot out doors the winter long.
There were furious storms that winter.
The snow fell as never remembered it be-
fore. The drifts seemed to wall US in from
all the world. ga living tomb" used to
murmur Il wish it were tomb indeed,
and in my last sleep" At twenty one can
be so very miserable; and at thirty, if one
lives so long, one can be so profane as to
laugh at it.
Sometimes Bryan and Thomas brought
word of the outside regions, of the way peo-
pie up-river were sleigh-riding over the
tops of fences, of the immense snowfall IN
happen from it in the spring if there should
be an early thaw. And l remembered some
words that Mark used to quote from play
he had seen when this snow melteth
there shall come af1ood." 1 didn't care how
many floods came.
And So with storm after storm, the
winter wore away, Jane and Maria at their
home keeping tasks, and l busy with my
rug-making, hooking strips of wooden cloth
through coffee bags, not because the house
was not full of them, but because l had
nothing better to do For couldn't read;
if | tried, my eyes swan and l could not
make out word of what 1t was all about.
And people went and came like shadows;
and the DAYS had grown short, and now
they grew long, and what did it all matter
to me!
March had come, but without sign OF
the winters breaking; and then at last
April loitered on, and April suns began to
do their work; and gradually the drifts OF
snow in the lanes and in the fields began to
settle and to lessen and melt and disappear.
And Bryan and Thomas had to talk of the
brooding hens, and watch for the breaking
up of the river, and discuss the chance OF
the early rye and the new calves and the
hiring of the spring hands; and 1t was all
emptiness. And one day it began TO snow,
and the snow turned to rain, and it rained
that day and rained in rivers and it rained
the next day, and it rained till it had rained
a week-a long, dreary week that babe fair
to end only in deluge. And on Saturday
the sun came out warm; and when looked,
the crocuses bloomed under the windows,
and Thomas said it was very like the May
flowers were opening in the woods If any
body could get to them for the roads all
being under water, although the river was
still locked in solid ice from shore to shore.
And in the late afternoon of the second
day of this same sweet sunshine and south
wind, as we sat there, Jane and |, Maria
ran in and said there was water IN the eel
lar, as much as six inches.
THAT is nothing" said 1. Il should think
there would be, after such melting of
snow and such raining OF torrents"
cts more likely it's the land sucking up
the river, MISS" said Maria. ''The rivers
lust raging full under it's ice coat, l
shouldn't wonder, and is letting itself out
through the land" And as she spoke
there came great shock and thrill, rum
BILE, roar, and a mighty burst of sound.
"Great mercy, missl' cried Jane, ''it's
the ice cracking and rending from shore to
L
springs as I've lived beside it" and before
she had done speaking the sound came
again-the sound of great guns, the tremb-
ling of an earthquake.
1T is an earthquake" said l. sit must
be. But earthquakes up here don't amount |
to any thing"
That's no earthquake" cried Jane. And |
then we sat there an hour or more, looking |
out on the river, and listening to the sounds, |
and wondering, and telling stories of earth |
uuakes and hardshipS and what not, curd- |
ling our blood as we talked. And at last |
Thomas came in; he had been down the |
lane to the highway, and person who had |
come from up-country had told MIN that the |
freshet was on the river, and the high water
had carried away Ford'S mills, dozen |
miles above US.
But how can it do that" said l. ''How |
can there be freshet where it's all ices"
Just because it is all ice, miss" said |
Thomas. THE streams are full up-country, |
and the frozen river down here is giving |
the water no outlet. Half the country be- |
tween here and there'u be afioat before |
morning" And then came the dull roar |
and rumble, the shock, the thrill the ex-
plosion, once more.
s.Why, this is terrible" said l. SIT seems |
as if elemental things were at work; as if |
the earth was splitting and opening" And |
while we waited and shivered, as one after |
another of the great explosions came, the |
door opened so quickly as to make us start, |
and Mrs. Sawyer ran in, her face as white |
as ashes.
"a messenger has just gone galloping by"
she gasped. my husband met him. He |
SAYS the dam at the falls has been carried |
away. and the mayor of Fallstown has sent |